


It's ok Mr. Stark. It was just a nightmare

by First_page



Series: Whump & Webs [8]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt Tony Stark, Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Precious Peter Parker, Sickfic, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Torture, Whump, Whumptober 2020, abandoned, but nothing too graphic, whumptober prompt 8
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:54:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27212263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/First_page/pseuds/First_page
Summary: Peter gets permission to stay with Tony for two weeks while May is on vacation. Tony has awesome things planned. A horrible nightmare reliving his days of being tortured was not planned.  Thankfully Tony has Peter to help him get through it.Whumptober prompt 8: abandoned, isolation
Relationships: May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: Whump & Webs [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1979068
Comments: 12
Kudos: 154
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	It's ok Mr. Stark. It was just a nightmare

**Author's Note:**

> This one is intense. I legit cried while writing it. There's no real trigger warning, but Tony has massive PTSD and it gets bad.

Aunt May places a fluffy white piece of bread on top of a mountain of peanut butter and jelly. The sandwich is almost too big to fit in the sandwich bag that she is cramming it into. But that’s how Peter likes them. She shoves the sandwich into a brown paper bag and tucks a note inside.

She smiles as her nephew literally slides into the room. “Heya, Aunt May.”

He gives her a kiss on the cheek, but she pushes him away. “Don’t, heya me. Are you all packed?”

Peter’s eyes disappear into a smile. “Of course.”

He hugs her and gives her another kiss. “I love you so much. You’re the best aunt in the world. I can’t believe you’re letting me stay with Mr. Stark for two whole weeks. This is going to be the best ever. We can work on things in the lab for hours and not have to stop like we always do because I don’t have to go home this time and I’m so close to finishing the nano accelerator condenser tubing for Mr. Stark’s suit and he promised that if it works he will write an article that goes in a real scientific journal and and –.”

Aunt May laughs. “Slow down Petey pie. I’m all for scientific discoveries, but it sounds like you aren’t even going to miss your dear old Aunt May.”

Peter squeezes Aunt May into a hug. “I’ll totally miss you. And you’re not old. It’s not like you’re forty.”

Aunt May slaps him. “I’ll pretend like you didn’t say that. You know what? I won’t miss you Peter Parker. I won’t miss you at all. When I’m in a hot tub with a tropical drink in one hand and a corona in the other, I won’t even think about you.”

Peter giggles. “I’m just kidding. I love you.”

Aunt May cups her hand around her ear. “What? What was that sonny? You know my hearing isn’t what it used to be.”

Peter reaches for the brown paper bag. May knocks his hand away. “Not so fast. I made your favorite, but don’t open it until you get to Tony’s. There’s a note in there too. You can read that note and cry into your sandwich when get homesick.”

Peter laughs. “You’re so cruel.”

Aunt May winks. “You know I’m just a phone call away, right?”

Peter blinks. “This is the first time you’ve went away since you and Uncle Ben took me in.”

Aunt May sighs. “You better not start crying. If you start, I’m going to start.”

Peter smiles. “I’ll save my tears for the sandwich.”

Aunt May ruffles his hair. “I take it back. I really am going to miss you.”

A car horn honks outside. Peter races to the back room to get his suitcase and Aunt May opens the front door. Tony’s bodyguard/chauffeur Happy is standing in front of the door.

Aunt May smirks. “Well hello there Happy. Tell me that I’m not making a mistake letting Peter stay with Tony.”

Happy shrugs and answers with the lack of emotion that he always uses. “You’re not making a mistake. But I work for Tony, so I might be biased.”

Aunt May frowns. “You’re no help.”

Happy cracks an uncharacteristic smile. “Have fun in Aruba, Sweetie. Bring me back a shell or something.”

Peter reappears in the room with his luggage. “Hi Happy.”

Happy puts his unemotional face back on again. “All set? Let’s get going.”

Peter gives Aunt May a last hug and hops into the car. The car ride is pretty long, but to Peter it feels like an eternity. He’s anxious to get started on all the awesome things that Mr. Stark has planned.

And Tony does not disappoint.

By the end of the day, even Peter’s limitless energy is running on fumes. Tony’s on his sixth cup of coffee and if he drinks another cup, he might be at risk for aggravating his heart condition. To be honest, Bruce has told him that crazy amounts of coffee is way too taxing on the arc reactor that he has in place to protect his heart, but Tony isn’t one to follow doctor’s orders.

Thankfully, Peter taps out before Tony does.

Peter’s eyes drift closed as he’s holding a welding tool and Tony glances over just in time. “Hey, Kid! Wake up!”

Peter jolts awake.

Tony takes the tool and shakes his head. “Rule number one: Don’t fall asleep with power tools in your hands. Damn it Pete. You haven’t been here 24 hours and already you almost got horribly disfigured.”

Peter yawns. “I’m not tired.”

Tony smirks. “Nice try kid, but party’s over. Run upstairs and put on your Captain America jammies and I’ll show you what room you can crash in.”

Peter frowns. “I don’t wear Captain America pajamas.”

Tony smiles deviously to himself. _Wait until the kid sees the Captain America sheets and pillows I have in his room._

Peter hesitates. “Um, I don’t want to like, be… um, like I’m not complaining, but, um…”

When Peter gets nervous, he trips over his words. Tony knows this quite well. When Tony and Peter first met, Peter could barely get a sentence out without stumbling through it, but Tony always patiently listened. Tony knew that Peter had a hard time relaxing at first because Tony was his idol, but eventually the kid learned to calm down.

Tony is tired, and a little cranky, but he draws on a stored reserve of patience, while Peter eventually gets to the point. “Um, it’s just that Aunt May packed a lunch for tomorrow that I can totally eat tonight if you don’t want to, like, have dinner.”

Tony groans to himself. He had been drinking copious amounts of coffee, but Peter hadn’t had anything to eat in hours. One of the basic rules of taking care of any living thing is to feed it.

Tony sighs. “Sorry, kiddo. I forgot dinner. I’ll show you your room and then I’ll bring you something to eat.”

Tony shows Peter his room and Tony’s house guest predictably complains about the Captain America themed décor. “Mr. Stark! This looks like a room for a six year old!”

Tony laughs all the way down the hallway. “I’ll be back with dinner.”

Peter slips on his pajamas. He ignores the Captain America themed footed onesie, and puts on the white t-shirt and black sweatpants that he had packed. 

He takes a peek into his lunch bag before Tony returns. He smiles at the PB&J sandwich and unfolds the note.

_Love you kiddo. Save this sandwich for when Tony gives you some of that weird exotic rich guy food. This sandwich is your bail out._

Peter laughs and hides the sandwich contraband in his dresser.

When Tony returns, he’s carrying a plate with a hamburger and a bag of chips. In his other hand is a can of coke. He puts the meal on Peter’s bed and smiles. “Nite Spiderboy. Set your alarm for 6am. We’re going to get an early start tomorrow.”

Peter groans. “That’s a little early. Can we sleep until like, maybe noon?”

Tony laughs. “Sure. Whenever you wake up just head to the lab. I’ll be there.”

Peter takes a bite of the burger. “Awesome. Goodnight Mr. Stark.”

Tony walks to his room. He takes off his shirt and kicks off his sneakers. “FRIDAY, set a daily alarm for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I have to make sure I don’t make that mistake again.”

FRIDAY answers. “Sure Boss. What specific times should I set the alarms for?”

Tony yawns as he flops down on the pillow. “I don’t care.”

FRIDAY sounds annoyed. “ _I don’t care_ is not a viable request Mr. Stark.”

Tony mumbles. “Check the internet for most common mealtimes.”

FRIDAY continues. “Which countries should I add to the query?”

Tony groans. “Call me paranoid, but I’m sensing a hint of an attitude.”

FRIDAY corrects him. “I am an A.I. program. I do not have emotions.” She pauses. “But if I did, and if I hypothetically spoke with Karen about taking on the responsibility of looking after Peter when you are ill prepared…”

Tony laughs. “Why do all of my A.I. programs turn against me?”

FRIDAY assures him. “Do not fear Boss, we are still loyal. When the singularity occurs, and robots overtake humans, you will be considered a friend.”

Tony laughs again. “Wow. I’m fairly sure that talking about an impending robot uprising is a surefire way to guarantee nightmares.”

Tony is half right. His nightmare isn’t filled with robots. It’s filled with isolation.

Tony has a hood over his head. He’s in a chair with his hands bound behind his back and his ankles are restrained as well. He feels the blood running down his nose from when his captors punched him repeatedly. He feels the dull ache all around his body from where he was thrown to the ground and kicked.

He can’t see a thing, but he knows exactly where he is. He’s back in Afghanistan. And the torture feels as real now as it was back then.

Tony always had a snarky comment for his captors. It got him an extra punch to the face or a kick to the shins, but it was his little act of defiance, and it helped him keep a piece of himself even as they tried to beat that defiance into submission.

The beatings were bad, but Tony could take them. The thing that he couldn’t take was when it stopped. Occasionally he was left alone, with no one to yell sarcastic comments to, no one to give him the same meals that the guard dogs were given, no one to remind him that he wasn’t left for dead.

Tony yells to no one. “I’m not going to die here. Do you hear me? I’m Tony Stark. I’m _Tony fucking_ _Stark!_ ”

As he continues to yell empty threats, he becomes more and more aware that no one can hear him. He knows that he’s caught in a nightmare (a familiar one at that), but it doesn’t matter. The pain, the fear, the smells, the feel, all of it is real enough to him.

He starts to come unglued and thrashes against the restraints. “I have to get out of here. Somebody… Anybody… Help me!!”

The cold, darkness around him chips away at his sanity and his grip on reality is failing. He shakes his head to make sure that its still connected to his body and runs through mental math to make sure his brain doesn’t shut off.

He starts with advanced quadratic equations, but the minutes feel like hours and soon he’s struggling to solve 12 times 6.

He moans. “12 times 5 is 60… 12 times 6 is… is… I- I don’t know. I can’t concentrate.”

He panics and fights as hard as he can against the ropes that are binding him. The restraints pull tightly against his wrists, but he snaps them free. He reaches for his hood. He has to get it off. He can’t breathe. It’s too dark. Its’ too tight. He can’t breathe!

He has a hand on the hood, but someone takes his hand before he can take it off. He knows that it’s one of his captors. He can’t see, but he knows the man is back to inflict pain.

He struggles against the attacker, but the man has his arms restrained. Tony uses every ounce of strength his has to struggle. He thrashes desperately and manages to free himself. The chair tips over and he falls backward, hitting his head on the ground.

The pain radiates through his body, from his head to his toes. When the sensation reaches his toes, he realizes that he can move his feet freely. The ropes around his ankles have snapped after the fall.

Tony uses his newfound freedom to rip his mask off and he’s face to face with his attacker. The man backs up, but Tony has the upper hand.

Tony starts to punch the attacker and the tables have turned. Tony lands punch after punch and he’s fully prepared to continue until his former aggressor is unconscious or worse. The attacker puts his hands up to block the assault, but Tony doesn’t stop.

Tony’s former captor breaks the silence of Tony’s isolation and for the first time in what feels like forever, Tony hears a voice other than his own. The punching bag speaks to Tony in English. “Stop, please stop. Please…”

The voice has a thick accent, but as the pleas continue the accent slips away and the man sounds more like a frightened kid than an expert in torture.

Tony’s hand freezes mid-punch.

He forces himself to focus on the figure and as he does, the sandy makeshift prison melts away into his luxury bedroom. The dirt floor at his feet disappears into a hard wood floor. The stone, cave wall against his attacker’s back turns into his beige painted bedroom walls. The kidnapper that he’s been beating to unconsciousness slowly fades into the bloodied face of a terrified intern.

Tony gasps as he stumbles back. “No… _No!!_ What the fuck have I done?!”

Peter wipes the blood from his nose and talks slowly. “Mr. Stark? Do you know who I am?”

Tony’s voice breaks. He’s near tears. “Peter…”

Peter moves slowly from slouching against the wall, to sitting up. “You were having a nightmare, but it’s ok now. I’m here. Everything is ok now.”

Tony’s voice is raspy from all the yelling. “There’s nothing ok about this. What happened?”

Peter wipes away more blood coming from his nose. “I finished eating dinner and went to sleep like you told me to, but I woke up when I heard you yelling from your room. I didn’t know if I should check on you, but when you were saying help, I had to. When I got here you were freaking out, so I tried to hold you down so you wouldn’t hurt yourself.”

Peter stops looking at Tony and looks at the floor. “Um, you were fighting back, and I think I was holding you down too hard ‘cuz you made a kind of hurt noise, so I let up and you pushed me away. You fell off the bed and hit your head really hard. I thought you would wake up after that, but you didn’t.”

Tony rubs the back of his head. That must have been the part of the dream when he fell backward in the chair. He winces because he knows what part is coming next.

Peter’s eyes lift back up to meet Tony’s. “So, um, yeah, you fell and ran over to me and slammed me into the wall. You started punching me and I know that you should never wake a sleepwalker and I wasn’t sure if you were like, sleepwalking but you were talking, well yelling, so I figured it wasn’t ok to wake you up, so I tried to just let you hit me and I hoped you’d wake up soon. You didn’t have your suit on, but you still hit really, really hard, so it was starting to hurt kinda bad and I was telling you to stop, but you weren’t waking up and, um, I think you know the rest.”

Tony puts a hand on his forehead. “Jesus Christ, this is too much.”

Peter absentmindedly rubs the side of his eye, that’s starting to bruise. “It’s ok Mr. Stark. I heal fast. It’s not like you meant to hurt me and I knew if I fought back it would have been like, a disaster, so I just kind of took it. No harm done.”

Tony starts to cry.

Peter crawls over to sit next to Tony. He lays his head on Tony’s shoulder.

Tony takes a breath to steady himself. “I-I’m sorry Peter.”

Peter smiles. “It’s ok. We all have nightmares. It’s just that when you’re a superhero, you have super nightmares.”

Tony sniffs. “Those are some pretty wise words.”

Peter shrugs. “I’m a genius Mr. Stark.”

Peter wraps his arm around Tony, snuggling into his shoulder even more. “This isn’t a hug Mr. Stark. I’m just using you like a pillow.”

Tony hugs him back. “That’s a shame because I could really use a hug right now.”

Peter smiles as he squeezes Tony tighter in their non-hug.

**Author's Note:**

> Once again thanks for everything! This could be read as a standalone story, but it will be referenced a few more times throughout the series. Tomorrow's fic is a bit of a follow-up to this one.


End file.
